April 22, 2021 Dracula's Castle, Trains, and Porta-Potties In this week's Odder News, visit Dracula's castle, Moscow's hidden subway stations, and the Russian cosmos. Cities & Towns Film & TV Space Transportation Travel Odder News
April 21, 2021 Centenarian Ship Weathers Every Storm One of the world's largest and most famous sailing training ships celebrates 100 years in the water. History Transportation War Russia File
March 31, 2021 Tram Takes on a Life of Its Own A viral video documents an out-of-control tram in Barnaul, and its hapless driver. Cities & Towns Internet Transportation Russia File
March 08, 2021 The Tram from Hell Leave it to Russia to come up with the absolutely most punk-rock way to remove snow. Humor Transportation Urban Life Russia File
March 04, 2021 Poisonous Furniture, Rugs, and Rail Carts In this week's Odder News, report yourself to the police for easy snow removal, watch out for poison in your sofa, and don't forget to wipe your feet on the rug on the way in. Int'l Relations News Transportation Odder News
February 14, 2021 An Ode to the Hovercraft Russia is a land of many mysteries. The greatest of all, of course, is this: What's the deal with Russians and their hovercraft? Geography Government Transportation Travel Russia File
February 10, 2021 Thanks, Doc Moscovites are thanking medical professionals during the Coronavirus pandemic the best way they know how to: colorful Metro trains. Health Moscow Transportation Russia File
January 28, 2021 Whatever Floats Russia's Boats It’s plain sailing for the Russian Federation along the Northern Sea Route, thanks to melting ice caps. Economy Environment Transportation Russia File
January 20, 2021 Opposition, not Operation Barbarossa “Don’t feel sorry for us, we’re simply working. We adequately “met” the airplanes from Germany in 1941, and we will meet all aircraft in the year 2021. This year we will be 80 and we have already seen and survived a lot.” – The Twitter account of Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, on the controversy surrounding the detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny upon his arrival, drawing parallels to the Second World War. History Moscow Politics Transportation Quote
January 19, 2021 Cat's Got Your Train Felix the cat is on the right track: instead of catching mice, he catches trains to get his daily supper. Animals Transportation Russia File
January 18, 2021 Not-So Smart Crosswalks When the Russian city of Salekhard tried to upgrade its pedestrian crosswalks, crisscrossed chaos ensued. Transportation Urban Life Russia File
January 15, 2021 The Fast and the Broomiest A bus driver in Kaliningrad has become internet-famous after video surfaced of them changing gears with what looks like a mop. Cities & Towns Internet Transportation Urban Life Russia File
November 11, 2023 to September 15, 2024 Visions of Transcendence: Creating Space in East and West Wende Museum | Culver City, CA This exhibit highlights the resilience and creative power of people deprived of their freedom or their own place to live. Art Exhibit
February 28, 2022 to December 31, 2024 Free Russian Language Guided Tours Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York, NY Russian-speaking guides conduct tours of the museum's highlights every Monday at 11 am. Art Exhibit
Driving Down Russia's Spine The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia.
Marooned in Moscow This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Little Humpbacked Horse A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.
Murder at the Dacha Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
The Moscow Eccentric Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
22 Russian Crosswords Test your knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and society with these 22 challenging puzzles taken from the pages of Russian Life magazine. Most all the clues are in English, but you must fill in the answers in Russian. If you get stumped, of course all the puzzles have answers printed at the back of the book.
Resilience: Life Stories of Centenarians Born in the Year of Revolution Call it resilience, grit, or just perseverance – it takes a special sort of person to have survived the last 100 years of Russian and Soviet history.
Russia Rules From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
At the Circus This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
A Taste of Chekhov This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
April 23, 2014 Peace, Land, Bread Peace! Land! Bread! This was the battle cry of the 1917 October Revolution (old calendar) that changed the history of Russia and indeed the entire world. Since the time of Ivan the Terrible, the tsars concentrated on centralization of their power and control. The most common way of doing this was to take power away from the nobility, appeasing them by giving them dominion over their land and workers. This soon developed into the oppressive, slave-style condition known as serfdom. History Russia File
February 20, 2014 Russian Genealogy A comprehensive listing of resources, online and off, for researching your Russian roots, courtesy of Ginny Audet. History Reference Russia File
January 10, 2014 Why Don't Russians Smile? It is a common trope that Russians never smile. Which of course is interpreted to mean they are unfriendly, gloomy, sullen – positively Dostoyevskian. This, of course, is a complete misreading of body language and cultural norms. Culture Humor Language Russia File
September 14, 2019 Eight Russian Desserts To Make Your Mouth Water Forget vodka – dessert is the best part of Russian meals. Culture Food & Drink Russia File
June 22, 2020 Why Invading Russia was Hitler's Downfall June 22, 2020, marks the 79th anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of Russia that changed the course of WWII and, perhaps, history itself. History Social Issues War Russia File
February 24, 2023 Russia's Year of Horror After a year of horrific war, why does a magazine like Russian Life continue? Why not simply wash our hands of it and walk away? Culture History Journalism War Russia File